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The Naga Isles
Basic Geography Far south of the continent lay the Naga Isles. Smaller in area and number than the Nippon islands, the Naga Isles maintain closer economic and diplomatic ties with the continent than Nippon. All the Isles are sweltering and tropical, often rainy and torrential during the monsoon season. There are a few volcanic peaks, but only the youngest eastern mountains are high enough to have snowcaps. The Naga Isles have no shortage of sandy beaches, making it easy for fishermen to set out from any area of the coast. Settlements tend not to stray too far from the coast, the population of the interior jungles is sparse. Most folk live in villages established in clearings between the coast and forest. They may tend some fields, but most food comes fishing, harvesting the products of native trees and hunting. The only sizable city in the Isles is Batangas, a prosperous trading port. There are other smaller cities scattered throughout the Isles, the sites of various palaces. Politics and History Ancient ruins dot the Naga Isles, untold thousands of years old. These ruins are decorated with images of a people with the lower bodies of snakes and upper bodies of humans, called naga. The Naga civilization disappeared long before the modern inhabitants arrived, for reasons unknown. When the human and asura settlers first arrived in the Naga Isles centuries ago, the only inhabitants were a few scattered bands of mleckas. Once the mleckas were killed or driven back to the Savage Lands, settlers discovered the overgrown ruins in the jungle and realized they weren't the first civilized folk in inhabit the islands. Anything more about the original Nagas remains a mystery. Centuries ago, almost simultaneously, human colonists from Shang, the Maurya Realms and asuras from Asura Island began settling the Naga Isles. Tales of rich lands full of exotic spices and hardwoods attracted merchants and prospectors, while accounts of bountiful fisheries and nourishing vegetation growing wild brought colonists fleeing overcrowded cities or unproductive farms. Almost as soon as they made it off the beaches, the colonists collided with the hostile mlecka bands. Within a decade or two, the mleckas had been completely wiped out or driven back to the Savage Land. Up to that point, the human and asura colonies had not had much contact with one another. Once the mleckas were cleared from the Isles, more migrants of both races arrived and the colonies expanded. Competition over resources and mutual mistrust (particularly amongst the Mauryan humans and asurans) broke out into armed conflict. The fight was short, but vicious, concluding in a stalemate. A truce was called and the Colonial Council formed to manage inter-colonial disputes. The peace proved lasting, and the colonists discovered that with some compromise, there was enough land and resources to go around. The early colonial days are now a distant memory. As the colonies became truly domestic settlements, chiefdoms formed on different islands and districts. There are many autonomous domains on the islands, competing with each other economically. While armed conflict between domains occasionally breaks out, the old Colonial Council still exists to settle these conflicts. All domains send representatives to the Council and all agree to abide by its decisions, under the threat of all other domains turning against the one who goes rouge. Society A kind of hybrid culture has developed on the Naga Isles, with humans and asurans living very similar lives. While settlements tend to be predominately Shang, Mauryan or Asuran, reflecting the whichever original colonists arrived there, there are people of each heritage in every community. The people are especially diverse on the largest central island, with each represented in about equal proportion. People of mixed human-asuran heritage are common, and human visitors to the port of Batangas often find this shocking. The population is not very urbanized, fairly evenly distributed along the coastlands. There are no permanent settlements deep in the interior jungles, where there are fewer sources of food and many hostile beasts. Most peasants from the other civilizations would find the lives of the common folk easy and idyllic. Because they rely less on staple crops, they do not face drought, blight or famine. The taxes on their produce are light, because the chieftains make most of their revenue from the island's exotic trade goods. Because of the influence of devan settlers from Maurya among the early colonists, slavery is illegal. Military The primary military threats faced by any particular domain are from pirate raids or other Nagan chiefdoms.''' '''Each chiefdom supports its own force of warriors. Almost all Nagan warriors are essentially militia rather than professional soldiers. Young men train with weapons to defend their homes and domains, ready for a local emergency or the chieftain's call to war. While individually skilled, Nagan warriors have little experience fighting in large formations. There is virtually no cavalry on the islands. Nagan warriors favor bladed weapons, and rarely wear armor. They typically fight with a weapon in each hand, or a small, round shield. While they use bows to hunt, Nagans favor javelins in battle. Each chiefdom boasts a small fleet of warships, capable of defending themselves from pirates or invading a rival domain. Specialized Nagan warships are swift vessels equipped with both sails and oars. Sails are used for longer range travel, while oars are used in combat. Like Mauryan and Asuran warships, Nagans rely on boarding actions. All Nagan warriors know the basic skills of sailing, so there is little distinction between soldiers, sailors and marines. Pirates are the perennial threat and most warriors in a chieftain's fleet have experience fighting them. There are rumors of mlecka raiders in war canoes hitting settlements on the southern coast, but no naval force has encountered them yet. Most sailors believe it would be impossible for the mleckas to sail all the way from the Savage Lands given their primitive technology, and the rumors come from exaggerated accounts of pirate raids. Religion The religious practices of the Nagan's are imported from their respective colonist cultures. Shang ancestor cult shrines and devan temples are common. Deva worship is the cause of some friction between human and asuran Nagans, but the devan clergy tend to be more restrained in their rhetoric than their counterparts in Maurya. Reverence of Ravenna has expanded beyond the asura population, as he can be seen as an example of human-asuran reconciliation.